Hug Me -- I'm Not Scared Anymore
by The Nerdinator
Summary: The universe had reset itself. The teachers were coming back. But this time, Drade, Doi, and Antis were ready for them.
1. Prologue

Drade continued to fiddle with the mysterious control panel. He was trying to find a way to turn it off, trying to find which button was the switch. But each time he tried, he ended up generating a new teacher, a new evil being that continued to torture Doi.

Drade had gotten as confused as a Red Guy could get. Were all the teachers simulations generated by this machine? And how did Antis end up in there? It was all very weird - Drade was even finally gaining interest in something.

Suddenly, an arm stretched out and tapped Drade on the shoulder. He turned around to see Roy, Doi's father, staring blankly at him."Wha?"

As far as he could tell Roy did not speak, but Drade was fluent in heavy breathing so he asked Roy (speaking in large, short breaths) _"You're behind all this, aren't you? Making this machine to torture and kill us?"_

 _"No,"_ Roy answered. _"I was also a victim of this machine. When I was young I was just like Doi, but then the teachers came. They played games with me like I was a rubber ball. One by one I lost my friends. When the last of the teachers left, I had become what you see now."_

 _"But I heard you say you wanted to take your son on a trip to 'punish land'."_

 _"I had thought that the teachers would teach him how to grow up a little, but then I remembered what happened to me. I decided to go find you. You're the only one who can save Doi now."_

This conversation happened in the span of a few seconds.

Roy stretched his arm out further, pointing to the screen that displayed Doi starting to gray and age, like Roy. _"Save him, Drade. He's the only family I've got left."_

Doi was Drade's friend. Sure, he wasn't too bright, but he was optimistic and cheerful and provided a source of brightness in their dark lives.

Drade noticed a power cord coming from the back of the machine. He followed it to a massive plug in the wall. "I wonder what will happen," he said to no one in particular, then he pulled the plug from its socket.

There was a blinding flash of light.

* * *

Doi woke up, sitting up in his bed. The teachers were gone. He felt rejuvenated.

"Today will be a great day!" he exclaimed happily, but then noticed his skin had turned yellow-green. "What? Why am I green?"

"I don't know," came a monotone voice from the bed to his right. Doi was surprised to see Drade, who had now become blue.

"Drade!"

"Hello, friend," Drade said, smiling under his furry mane.

"What? Where am I?" came a nasally voice from the bed to Doi's left. It was Antis, the once-green duck now a red finch.

"Antis! You're alive again!

"Hey! I am alive again. Whatever happened must have reset the universe. Come on, friends; let's have breakfast."

The three got out of bed, dressed (or in Drade's case, undressed), went downstairs and had their breakfast. Once done, they were bored again.

A notebook appeared on their table. It flipped its cover off, revealing their first teacher. "What's your favorite idea?" Paige asked them.

But this time, the puppets were ready.

* * *

 **AN: Doi = Yellow Guy, Drade = Red Guy, Antis = Duck Guy.**


	2. Creativity

"Mine is being creative," Paige continued.

"How did you get the idea?" Doi asked.

"I just try to think cre-a-tive-ly. Now when you look at this orange, tell me please, what do you see?" Paige asked.

"It's just a regular orange," Antis said, more careful with his wording this time.

"Maybe to you, but not to me. I see a silly face!"

"Wow!" Doi exclaimed as the orange came to life.

"Walking along and smiling at me."

"I think I see what you mean!" Antis added.

"Because you're thinking cre-a-tive-ly! So take a look at my hair."

"Cool," Doi said.

"I use my hair to express myself."

"That sounds really cool," Drade said. Flicking his mane back to reveal his mouth, he said, "I think I should use my hair to express myself."

"Now, when you stare at the clouds in the sky, don't you find them exciting?" Paige asked.

"Sometimes," Doi said simply.

"Come on, take a closer look!"

"Oh wait!" Doi exclaimed as the clouds began to morph. Then Drade and Antis joined him with "I can see a hat! I can see a cat! I can see a man with a baseball bat! I can see a dog! I can see a frog! I can see a ladder leaning on a log!"

"You're really getting the hang of it now. Using your minds to have a good time."

"I might paint a picture of a clown!" Doi said, presenting his painting.

"That's right, friend, there's no need to slow down. Here's another good tip."

"Yeah?" the others asked.

"On how to be a creative wiz kid, go and collect some leaves and sticks and arrange them to your favorite color."

"Blue!" Drade said.

"Red!" Antis said.

"Green!" Doi said.

"Those are all creative colors," Paige said.

Doi grinned because this time Paige didn't mock him for liking green, even though Antis was originally a very dark shade of green. Doi had found that weird.

"There's one more thing that you need to know, before you let your creativity flow," Paige added. "Listen to your heart, and listen to the rain, and listen to the voices inside your brain! Come on, guys! Let's get creative!"

Drade pulled out a guitar and strummed a happy tune, while Doi and Antis drew pictures. But rather than the macabre art they had done the first time, they made normal pictures. Doi drew a man made entirely out of spaghetti living in a world made of pasta, and Antis did a painting of him and two birds that were presumably his parents.

The lesson finished, Paige ended the song with "Now let's all agree, to always be creative." Then she popped out of existence.

The puppets treated it as a silent victory, for they had won over the first of many teachers. But in case the operator of the machine had returned, they pretended to be bored again.

"Who wants to see if a pencil can fly in an airplane?" Doi asked.

"Of course pencils can fly in an airplane," Antis replied. "The trick is getting them to fly without one."


	3. Time

The next day was June 21. Time was finally moving forward. Speaking of which...

"Okay guys, there are five minutes until our show's on," Drade said, trying to get the younger puppets to settle down a bit.

"That's not a lot of time," Antis observed, anticipating...

"That's plenty of time for a song," the living room's clock said, coming to life. The puppets looked at him, seeming to wonder what he would do (but in reality, they knew).

"Time is a tool you can put on the wall or wear on your wrist," Tony began. "The past is far behind us, while the future has yet to exist."

"Wow," Doi said.

"Whats the time?" Drade asked.

"It's a quarter to nine, time to have a bath," Tony said. Suddenly the puppets were all in three separate bathtubs.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to be a little extra clean," Antis said, pulling out a bar of soap and rubbing it on his left armpit (wingpit?).

"Scrub scrub scrub til the water's green," Tony said. Suddenly the puppets were out of the bath and dry.

"Time is a ruler to measure the day, it doesn't go backwards, only one way," Tony said. "Watch it go round like a merry-go-round, going so fast but making no sound."

Then the clock and the puppets were in space. "Let's go on a journey, a journey through time. Time is changing all the time, it's time to go to time!" Tony warbled.

"At least we've something to do while waiting for our show," Drade noted.

"That's correct my friend! C'mon its time to go," Tony said. Suddenly they were in 1870's England.

"Time is old like the Victorian times," Tony said.

"With cobbles and plague and speaking in rhymes," said a one-man band.

"With cobbles and chimneys; a simpler time," said a sweep.

"With cobbles and sawdust and batteries and slime," said a man jumping out of the sewer.

"This tree that is old has circles inside," Doi said, picking up an entire dead tree.

"That's a record of just how the tree lived its life," Tony explained. Doi set the tree back down.

"The apple that's fresh is ripe to the core," Antis said, holding an apple.

"Then I rot over time and I'm not anymore," the apple replied, rotting. Antis took a step back; he didn't want to live through the trauma of rotting like the apple again.

"Time can be told by the moon or the sun, but time flies fast when you're having fun," Tony said, standing next to a mustachioed sundial the puppets thought was probably his father. "There's a time and a place for mucking around," he explained further.

"Like birthdays," Antis said, eating a cake.

"And camping," Drade said, popping his head out of a tent.

"And playing catch with my dad," Doi said. Roy looked a bit happier now, and he and his son happily passed a kickball to each other.

"So then what happened after the olden days?" Drade asked once they had left England.

"Time went new and got old like history. Stuff from the past went into a mystery. We conquered the sky, we built the computer. Everything's cooler, because IT'S THE FUTURE!" Tony responded, singing happily. They entered the modern day.

"Time is now, the future anew, and look at all of the wonderful things you can do," Tony said. "With gadgets and gizmos and email addresses."

"And playing online games like Big Gooey Messes," Doi said. Roy was playing said game on his computer rather than looking at smut.

"Look at the time," Tony said.

"It's quarter to eight, there's fish on my plate," Antis said, eating some smoked salmon.

"It's twenty past day, there's fish on my tray," Doi said, not quite figuring out how to use time right, but regardless holding up a tray with a fish stick on it.

"It's eleven to twelve, there's fish in the bath," Antis said, pulling a rubber fish out of the bathtub.

"It's nine thirty, there's fish everywhere...fish everywhere," Drade said. His portion of his room was now decorated with paintings of fish.

"Now you can see the importance of time. It helps us make pizza, it keeps things in line," Tony said.

"But when did it start?" Antis asked.

"And when will it stop?" Doi added.

"I only tell time - I'm only a clock," Tony said, equally baffled.

"If we run out of time, where does it go?" Drade asked.

"Is time even real? Does anyone know?" Doi asked.

"Maybe time's just a construct of human perception. An illusion created by an abstract conception," Antis said, pointing to a diagram of a human brain, trying to offer an explanation.

This time Tony took it under consideration before saying, "Perhaps it is, but all that I know is: sunrise, sunset, night, and day. The changing seasons, the smell of hay. Look at your hair grow, isn't it strange? How time makes your appearance change."

Rather than rotting, the puppets grew older, bigger, better-looking.

"So as you can see," Tony finished, "you're going to be fine. What ho - it seems I've run out of time." Then he popped out of existence.

The puppets returned to their proper ages and were free to wait the last minute until their show.

* * *

After their show, Drade went to see Roy. Speaking in heavy breaths again, he said _"Roy, I think you should scan your computer for viruses. Your computer may act up in the future."_

 _"Good idea,"_ Roy replied.


	4. Love

The next day (June 22), the three puppets were sitting in a small clearing.

"Isn't it nice to finally be outside on such a beautiful day?" Drade asked, this time emotion in his voice.

"Yes, and I packed us a delicious chicken picnic," Antis added. This time, though, the chicken was cooked. A bee flew by (and this time, it actually _was_ a bee) and landed on Antis' beak.

"Pesky bee! Get it away! Get it away!" Antis yelped. Doi didn't want to kill the bee, but he didn't want Antis to be stung either. Thinking fast, he grabbed some soda from the picnic and poured it on a rock. Intoxicated by the scent of sugar, the bee flew away.

"Phew! I hate bees," Antis said.

Doi looked at him, confused.

"Sorry Doi, it's just that I don't want to be stung," he explained.

"Don't you think that there's too much hatred in the world?" came a voice. The puppets turned to see a horribly inaccurate butterfly. "I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question," Shrignold continued. Then he began to sing.

"Have you ever wondered why we're here? What's it all about, you have no idea. And everywhere you look, all you see is hatred. Darkness, death and fear. But you know it doesn't have to be, 'I hate you and you hate me.' 'Cause even though we're different, it doesn't make a difference. And then we could live in harmony. I know you don't know who I am. But maybe I could hold your hand? And together we could understand about love..."

"Huh? I feel tingly," Doi said.

"Yes, that's love, my friend. And it's time for you to learn all about it." Shrignold laughed.

Then the three puppets were in the clouds.

"Have you ever feel like life's unfair, 'cause everyone hates you and no one cares? But maybe if you'll follow me, maybe you could see, that love is everywhere," Shrignold continued.

"What's love?" Drade asked.

"It's a feeling deep inside," a cloud said.

"I'm hungry," Antis said.

"No, a different kind of feeling," Shrignold explained. "A feeling that you like something a whole lot."

"I don't understand, but I want to," Doi said.

"Don't worry, you will soon. Come and meet some of my friends, they know all about love. Come on, just over the rainbow!"

As they went closer and closer to the rainbow, Antis said, "Well, here we go, flying through the sky."

"If we don't follow him, we'll get left behind," Drade commented.

"We're not eating, and I'd like to eat the chicken."

"I'd also like to eat the chicken. But that can wait right now."

Once they had arrived, Shrignold said, "So here we are with all my friends, and they love you - all of them!"

"Yes we do," said a rabbit.

"It is true!" said a unicorn.

"We love you!" said a frog.

"And you love us, too!" an ambiguous furry thing said.

"I love you too, Furry Boy!" Shrignold said to the furry thing. Furry Boy smiled. To the puppets, he said "To love each other is to care, to be kind!"

"And to share!" a flower said.

"I love my friends, so I give 'em a hug!" the rabbit said.

"I made this for you 'cause I love you so much," the frog said, presenting a pencil holder.

"I love my pet 'cause he's a crab!" Furry Boy said.

"I love this tree and I love this and I love this stick and I love this - everything!" Doi said.

"Yes, yes, yes! That's how it's done. But then there's the love for your special one," Shrignold said.

"What's a special one?" Drade asked.

"The person who'll always love you no matter what," the unicorn said. "Everyone has a special one."

"Even us? But we're lonely..." Antis said.

"Yes, it's true! But do not worry. You're confused, but that's okay! Let me put it another way..." Shrignold said. "Tree, can you help me?"

"Sure I can, Shrignold!" a tree said. Then the tree began to tell a story. "This is the story of Michael. The loneliest boy in town. This is the story of Michael, the ugliest boy in town. Ugly and weak, they called him a freak! So he lived on his own underground, he lived on his own underground, he lived on his own underground.

"But," the tree continued, "there was a girl. A girl named Rachel, who they said was the ugliest girl in her town. Ugly and weak, they called her a freak! So she went to live on her own underground - but then she met Michael! And that's why there are salamanders."

"You see? Everyone has a special one," Shrignold said.

"Even Michael!" the rabbit added.

"Your heart beats hard like a big love drum, but it speeds up whenever you're near your special one."

"I thought the heart just pumped blood," Drade commented.

"Yes, but the thought of the special one makes it a love drum," Shrignold said.

"So don't worry, friends," said a statue with the name MALCOLM written on his podium. "One of these days, you won't be alone."

"But they aren't alone!" Furry Boy said. "They have each other."

"And that's a very good kind of love, indeed," Shrignold said. "Friendship is a wonderful kind of love. One of the best."

Then Shrignold and all the other love things popped out of existence.

Doi smiled at his friends.

"I'm hungry," Antis said.

The puppets returned to find their picnic untouched. They ate all their chicken, and then rested under the afternoon sun.


End file.
